Voyages

Mary Bevan (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

The notion of a musical journey may be a cliché, but this intelligent collection is no hackneyed metaphorical package tour…What makes these travels so beguiling is the combination of Bevan and... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2018, More…

About

Soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Jopseph Middleton perform a programme exploring the genius of Baudelaire and Goethe, and how texts by them unlocked very specific musical landscapes in settings by Debussy, Duparc, Chausson, de Bréville, Séverac, Fauré and Schubert.Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control” in stand out performances on opera and concert platforms, Mary Bevan is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music. Pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been highly acclaimed within this field. Described in the BBC Music Magazine as “one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder”, he has also been labeled “the cream of the new generation” by The Times and “a perfect accompanist” by Opera Now

Reviews

March 2018

The notion of a musical journey may be a cliché, but this intelligent collection is no hackneyed metaphorical package tour…What makes these travels so beguiling is the combination of Bevan and Middleton. Bevan’s creamy, velvet tone is continually seductive, while her upper register is achingly beautiful when hushed, yet also soars radiantly in Debussy’s Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire.

January 2018

Bevan’s purity of tone and discreet yet telling way with words can be by turns unnerving and alluring in the Baudelaire settings… Middleton, as one might expect, is marvellously insightful, playing throughout with weight as well as grace and subtlety.

Yorkshire Evening Post
November 2017

[Mary Bevan] has that very smooth quality, ideally suited to this impressionist era… Signum Classics’ sound quality reflects the elegance of the performances.